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3.18.2014

Silhouette America is running a new promotion starting on Thursday of this week to promote the print and cut feature of their software and machines. I love this feature and use it often. In fact, I just used it to make the tags for my new laundry system. You can read about that HERE!

2.24.2014

My husband and I decided years ago that we would stay home with our kids on Valentine’s Day instead of going out as a couple. We have a tradition of doing cheese and chocolate fondue for dinner with our kids. It is fun and the kids feel loved and special knowing that we want to be with them on “love day”. My husband and I also decided years ago that we would switch off buying gifts/planning a Valentine’s date. We go on a date for Valentine’s Day, but we do it on a different night. One year I will buy a gift and he will plan the date. The next year we switch.

This year it was my turn to plan the date and his to buy the gift. He got me a Kindle Fire HD and a box of See’s Chocolates. Woo hoo! I am so excited about my Kindle and the See’s have special meaning to us (and good chocolates are just yummy!). For our date we will be going to a steakhouse and seeing a romantic movie. Nothing too exciting but we are definitely looking forward to it. But I did want to do something special for him and something to commemorate our love for each other on Valentine’s Day.

So, after dinner last night we put the kids upstairs watching a movie with instructions to go to bed after it was over. And I planned a “Spa Night” for my lover. It was soooo fun to plan it and set it all up. I just knew he would LOVE it. And he totally did. And even though it was a lot of work for me I really loved doing it for him. I want to share what I did and how I did it.

I didn’t take pictures, but I did take these shots of the bathtub area the next morning.

2.17.2014

I am not a fan of laundry. I’ve always thought it was because it was never done. As soon as you wash the last load, someone has something dirty again. But I recently realized not only do I hate that it is never complete, I hate that there is always laundry all over the house…clean baskets of things to fold, piles of laundry to put away, or baskets of folded clothes waiting to be taken up to the kids room, or the WORST, clean folded laundry unfolded by kids looking through it for their favorite jeans. And then there was the laundry room where people would just throw in any laundry sitting around the main floor…socks, sweatshirts, towels…anything someone had left laying around when they had to clean a room. So, the laundry room was always a mess.

For the past couple years, I have been making my 11 and 10 year old sons do their own laundry. This happened as a punishment for me doing their laundry and asking them to put it away and me later finding clean folded clothes back in the dirty clothes, in a basket under the bathroom sink, or just sitting in their room for weeks. So, I told them I was not doing their laundry anymore and they would have to do it. My older son does ok with it, though usually he is doing laundry at the worst possible times when he realizes Sunday night has has nothing to wear to school the next day. Or they will start their laundry and then leave it in the washer until I advance it so that I can use the washer for my own laundry. My 10 year old will just wear EVERYTHING he owns until he has about 6 loads of laundry to do. Then, he will start wearing all dirty clothes. In other words, he will never do his laundry. I had had enough of this system! I was sick of not having the washer available and sick of my kids wearing wrinkled and/or dirty clothes.

I have FINALLY come up with and awesome laundry system that is totally working for us! Granted, there are still clothes all over the kids rooms, but since I don’t have to live in their rooms it isn’t bothering me too much. Here is what I did:

I have not had the chance to use the sketch pens yet, but I have seen some really fun paper crafts that have utilized them. They seem to be a very fun tool!

I am SUPER excited about getting the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition Software! I have never seen such a huge discount on it! 40% off!! I use the Silhouette software for a lot of my graphic designs, not just for things I am going to cut with my Silhouette. It is a simple program that is easy to use and quick to learn. The awesome thing about the designer edition is that you can use any .svg file to cut! This expands the images you can cut greatly! You are no longer limited to cutting only the files in the Silhouette Online Store (though there are thousands upon thousands of great files there for only $1 or less!). .SVG files can be found for free all over the web! I can’t wait to start using this new software!

Here are the differences between the basic software and the designer edition:

11.06.2013

I have been on a blogging hiatus for quite some time. I just came to the realization than when I am blogging heavily I am not able to be the wife and mother I want to be. I have still be living a creative life and thinking of things I’d like to share with you all. I hope to blog occasionally without the stress of having perfect pictures or promoting my blog on social media. I hope you will still enjoy reading from time to time and will share my posts with your friends and family. today I am blogging because I made 175 gourmet caramel apples last week and the week before and now I have some sort of soft tissue problem with my thumb! so I am trying not to use it as much as possible. I figured typing was my best bet!

My kids have a problem with keeping track of their money. For years we had money laying around, getting lost, and money getting stolen by other brothers! I had finally had enough, so I devised a system to help my kids keep track of their money and keep it safer.

Here is our Nelson Family Bank Binder:

I originally did this with a binder and page protectors. It worked fine, except when the kids would get out the binder (which they weren’t supposed to do) they would end up dumping half the money out! So the other day at Walmart I came across these zippered binder pouches for $0.47 each. I knew they would be perfect! So, I upgraded our page protectors to binder pouches.

How does it work? I have a big three ring binder. In the binder there are 4 pouches for each child (my son in college obviously isn’t included). Each pouch is labeled with the fund it is for. In our family the kids have a fund for Retirement, Church Missions, Tithing, and then just their Savings. They can take money from their Savings to spend on things now at their own discretion, but I encourage them to save most of their money so they can buy Christmas gifts for each other as well as other things they may want to buy down the road.

I made up a ledger to go in each pocket for them to keep track of their money. When money goes in or out of the pouch, they will record the date, where the money came from or where it is going, the amount of the transaction, and the new total for the pouch. The last column has divided cells to allow them to work the math problem right there. I made the ledgers half sheets but in the future I will make full sheets and fold them in half to fit in the pouch to make it a little easier to fill in the cells.

We sat down with the kids and talked to them about the importance of saving money. We talked to them about saving for retirement, as well as their missions/college. We talked to them about the commandment to pay 10% of their money in tithes. Our kids earn money through doing jobs such as cutting the grass, babysitting, and other chores we hire them to do. They also make some money doing jobs for neighbors. They also have generous grandparents who give them money at birthdays and Christmas. At this time we are not paying them a set allowance, but sometimes we do.

I think it is important for kids to learn to manage money as early as possible. Some of my kids are better savers than others. But I think this system allows them to see clearly and tangibly how saving that small percentage of the money they earn adds up in their different fund pouches.

If you would like to download my ledger for your personal use, you can do so HERE.

11.05.2013

I feel strongly that pornography is detrimental to our society and particularly to our children.

It is something I worry about daily in regards to my five sons. I have felt helpless and hopeless for several years that there would ever be anything I could do to decrease the chances of my children happening upon it (other than internet filters which don’t work well enough and which are not going to be installed on every internet device they ever use).

I recently became aware that there is a White House petition {https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/require-porn-be-opt-feature-internet-service-providers-rather-standard-feature/GF1RkqpJ} available to sign in regards to internet pornography- the petition suggests that porn be an "opt in" feature with internet providers in which you would have to subscribe through your ISP to have any access to inappropriate pornographic sites. If this petition is successful it would help protect anyone (especially children) from happening upon inappropriate sites on accident. Before the internet, only adults were allowed to purchase and view pornography- let's help keep our kids safe. As Of now, the petition needs 95000 more votes in just two weeks!

Please help me by signing the petition. It only takes a minute. You do have to submit your email address, but unless you check the box you will not be sent any newsletters or solicitations. Please help take a step to protect our kids! It only takes a couple minutes to make an account. Please share and ask your friends to sign as well.

Hi, I am Emily! Welcome to ReMarkable Home! I hope you enjoy your visit! Life with 5 sons is crazy, yet ReMarkable! I love to create to keep my sanity! I hope you will find some inspiration for creating your own ReMarkable Home!